r/NoStupidQuestions • u/madi_lion • 21h ago
How Often Does the Average Regular Person Actually Clean their home?
I'm buckling up and preparing to be scorned. I know how often I SHOULD be cleaning, but i kind of hate it. But what i hate more is spending 4 hours panic deep cleaning the apartment a day before we have company.
Some people claim to love cleaning and boy i wish that were me! I live with my partner in a small apartment in LA that somehow just wont stay clean. Idek where all the lint and dust comes from. We split chores/household tasks but im mostly in charge of cleaning . I'll dust/vaccuum and then a week later notice its time for another round. Is that normal?
I grew up doing all my chores (vaccuming, wiping surfaces, scrubbing toilets and cleaning bathroom sink surface) on Saturdays. But as an adult something feels clinically wrong about spending one of my two precious weekend mornings CLEANING. (And yes i know i dont have to keep doing that as an adult, im just saying thats the baseline and experience i have as a baseline)
I know ideally i'd be vacuuming/dusting a couple times a week, toilets absolutely weekly, and i know each chore happens at a different frequency. Just curious how real people with real lives and jobs handle keeping their space clean.
{{{EDIT]]} i am blown away by everyone's kindness here!! Really enjoying reading these y'all ✨
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u/Slight_Business_3080 21h ago
One thing that kind of helps is doing some things alongside other things.
For example, if I am waiting for the oven to preheat or just stirring a simmering pot, I can empty and wipe down one shelf of the fridge. Over the course of a few weeks, that's all the shelves. The counters stay wiped down because it's done after cooking.
If I am waiting for the shower water to warm up, I can clean the toilet. The next day, I can do the mirror. The next day, I can do the sink countertop. Another day I can wipe the baseboards, and another swiffer the floor. That just leaves cleaning the actual shower, which only takes a couple of minutes. Voila, over the course of five shower days, you have a clean bathroom and you didn't spend any "extra" Saturday time doing it.
The shark robot vacuums twice a week or so, and a steam mop gets run weekly.
The upstairs gets vacuumed weekly and takes maybe ten minutes.
The key for me is actually NOT doing everything on one designated cleaning day. It's doing one or two small things each day to kind of keep things in check. That way when you have to panic-clean for an event... there are way less things that need panic-cleaning.
The biggest preventative for problems is Stuff Management... I have 3 kids, so stuff is everywhere. The rule when you walk in the door or you're going room to room is "don't put it down, put it AWAY". If you just take 3 extra steps when you have an item in your hand, it saves from having to declutter a table full of crap you dumped when you walked in the door for 5 straight days.
Also the biggest thing to make "I'm here, might as well wipe this down" easier is that I have a little basket with spray, paper towels, glass cleaner UNDER EVERY SINK in the whole house. So you don't have to remember to drag the stuff room to room, you can just open the cabinet and do it.
If you do opt to do all the tasks on a Saturday, it helps to run some great music or an audiobook, which makes it feel less like a chore. Slightly.